The Orleans Parish School Board’s chief has recommended that the charter for a Central City school not be renewed for next year, after issuing several warnings to the school over the actions of its school board.

OPSB Superintendent Henderson Lewis, Jr. held a parent meeting at Edgar P. Harney Spirit of Excellence Academy Monday evening (Nov. 5) to tell the community about his decision. Lewis told more than 100 employees and parents that Harney failed to live up to a “spirit of excellence” given a series of non-compliance issues.

However, Harney retuned to the OPSB’s oversight in the 2017-18 school year. Likewise, Louisiana lawmakers approved Act 91 of 2016 to strengthen the Orleans superintendent’s authority to recommend and implement charter approvals, extensions, renewals, closures, monitoring and intervention.

The Orleans School Board will consider Harney’s renewal before the 2018-19 school year ends. Lewis’ recommendation will stand unless the seven-member board can muster a two-thirds vote to change it. OPSB Senior Chief and Portfolio Officer Amanda Aiken told Harney parents that if the school closes, their students will get closing school priority for school placement in OneApp for the 2019-2020 school year.

“We’re going to take care of this situation because it’s unacceptable. I’ve been an educator for over 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Lewis said.

The graph below displays Harney’s revenue over time, according to state audits.

Harney’s history of non-compliance

Harney is a “C”-rated school that teaches 296 students at 2503 Willow Street, according to the Louisiana Department of Education. The district states Harney in a short period of time has received more warnings for non-compliance than any other school citywide. Non-compliance notices obtained from the district on Nov. 1 show the OPSB has tried to obtain financial information from Harney since October 2017.

The Louisiana Department of Education in December 2017 deemed Harney non-compliant because Harney failed to submit its 1st Quarter financial report. The LDOE learned that Harney’s chief financial officer at the time, Brent Washington, was being paid an additional $54,500 on the side for over three years to do accounting for Harney. State law forbids public employees from contracting with their agencies to do work that overlaps with their job duties.

Documents from OPSB also showed that Harney received three warnings in one day in April, including one for failing to respond to records requests. Another warning stated Harney failed to provide school support to a student with special needs. A third warning criticized Harney for improperly using physical restraint on a student. Although the letter doesn’t provide many details about that allegation, the district says, among several concerns listed, that Harney didn’t follow proper procedure for notifying parents after a student was physically restrained. In July, the district stated Harney improperly withheld retirement contributions from employees’ bi-weekly paychecks from October through December 2017.

Scroll through the timeline below for more information about Harney’s non-compliance issues. Click the arrow ( > ) at right, or swipe on a mobile device, to advance this timeline.

The district sought to put Harney’s issues in context for parents during a meeting at Harney on Oct. 25. No disruptions occurred among the parents and staff present for Aiken’s short presentation. One parent, however, confronted the Rev. Charles Southall III of First Emanuel Baptist Church, Harney’s board president, minutes after he arrived on campus for the meeting. Minutes later, Southall could be seen exchanging words with Aiken as Aiken told him to comply with the district.

Southall told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune that the district has been “unfair” to Harney’s board in an effort to not renew their contract. He claimed other schools in the district have had “late reporting” issues but those schools never received warnings as severe as Harney. Even so, Southall admited Harney has had “some reporting issues” as well as “differences between what OPSB expects of us and what we had in contract with BESE.”

OPSB, for instance, told Harney’s board they needed seven board members, but Southall said his board’s contract with the state BESE stated they only needed five members. Southall said they “immediately” got seven members for their board. Southall also claimed its contract with Washington, the former CFO, was designed for a charter school in Baton Rouge that they were expected to operate.

Southall and Harney board member Ashton Ryan Jr., the former CEO of First NBC Bank, told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune that they never stole anything from the students and staff at Harney. Ryan said they didn’t know Washington wasn’t depositing employee retirement money into the retirement fund, but Southall said Washington was fired in June once they learned about it. Ryan also said Harney now has policies in place against those “bad practices.” Although “most” of the non-compliance issues have been fixed, Ryan said, the district has continued to mention those issues because “they’re embarrassed” these issues happened under the district’s oversight.

Parents, advocates slam Harney board’s actions

The superintendent’s closure recommendation follows the Harney board’s decision to suspend its principal last Friday pending an investigation into her actions. On Nov. 2, an attorney for Ashonta Wyatt told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune that Wyatt was suspended with pay because she questioned the board’s use of school funds to pay the board’s secretary. Wyatt has also been accused of defamation in a dispute with local attorney Juan LaFonta.

Lewis, who said the district wasn’t involved in that decision, criticized Harney for preventing “stability for students” by cycling through five principals in two years. OPSB Senior Chief Aiken told parents the district is investigating that matter. Harney’s board plans to complete their investigation of Wyatt in December, Aiken added.

Aiken also told parents the district hasn’t made any decisions yet regarding the future use of Harney’s campus. She said the district will set up a process where they can get feedback from the community to determine whether the facility can meet the needs of other schools or educational programs in the city.

Some current and former employees expressed support for Lewis’ decision because they thought Harney’s board wasn’t putting its students first. Other employees, like Harney kindergarten teacher Winnifred Magee, said the closure decision would leave “a void” in Central City because Harney is “more than a second home” for its students. Although Harney has its problems, it’s also “a big support” to the community because its employees are “deeply concerned” about their students’ wellbeing and success, Magee said.

“I don’t know what they’re going to replace the school with, but it will take a lot for them to really rebuild what we have at this school,” Magee said.

Harney’s board also received criticism from the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools. In a released statement, executive director Caroline Roemer Monday night urged Harney’s board to resign and called for new leadership to step in at the school. Roemer’s comments were echoed by Harney parents like Lateisha Vallery-Broden, who confronted Southall on Oct. 25 about his board’s actions. Vallery-Broden said she hoped Harney could remain open as a neighborhood school because everything the district wanted from Harney didn’t “have anything to do with these kids.”

“[My daughter will] be in high school next year, so I’m fighting for the other ones who need to be here for three or four years until they get to high school…This school could really be a “B” school,” Vallery-Broden said.

The graph below displays Harney’s expenses over time, according to state audits.